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Forum nameMarketing Mix
Topic subjectRE: Promoting B2B
Topic URLhttps://www.businessownersideacafe.com/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=1438&mesg_id=1448
1448, RE: Promoting B2B
Posted by nardy, Fri Jul-24-09 06:54 AM
FashionLara,
As a graphic Designer I would suggest a facelift for your site. Although you are selling wholesale, the basics of sales still apply, right? The site is pretty clean but seems to lack a fashionable sense of design. It seems to be more like a strictly functional look. Your image is a vital part of your business. Your advertising, including your website has to work hard for you, with words and graphics tailored to tell your story to potential customers. I don't know fashion, but your products look to be of a very fine quality. I would suggest that you make the site a little more inviting. Start with a look that puts a little more emphasis on the brand and what it represents. Is the big LARA on the left your logo? if so I would isolate it a bit more as an identifier along with one of your best products in a beautiful setting to set the tone. Personally, I think you have too much stuff on the first page which causes confusion as to where to click first. You can still have menu items clearly identified so they can navigate directly to what they want to see without creating a visual chaos. To me your beautiful products are presented in a bargain basement fashion which drags down the sense of quality. I am sorry if this critique hurts anyone's feelings. I know that a lot of work went into setting up this site. Since you asked I wanted to give you my honest outside opinion.

In regards to targeting your niche and advertising I could suggest a couple of things. My family had a small women's boutique apparel store, but I don't claim to be an expert. I noticed that the stores that seemed to last the longest and be the most successful had a very identifiable niche. For instance one specialized in very expensive dressy casual attire. Another dealt mainly in styles for the early to mid twenties age range. Another dealt only in plus sizes. The small stores that tried to appeal to a wide range of styles were not successful. My conclusion was that customers liked to go to a store that was a known quantity. The stores that understood this marketed themselves clearly and attracted the customers that were looking specifically for that type of product. I think you have to identify who your product appeals to specifically (meaning the retail customer). If you can identify the retail customer that will help you identify the stores that service them. With research you can then try to locate these types of stores which will give you a decent prospect list.

If you can come up with a prospect list you can then create some very custom email solicitations which can be sent directly to them. Once you have made contact and communicated you can also utilize fax advertisements if they agree to accept them. Of course there would also be telephone follow ups. Except for the cost of the phone calls (which can vary depending on your service), all of this would be basically free or very low cost.

Best Regards,
Nardy